Alcohols are important commodity feedstock for a variety of industrial products. For example, glycerol is a waste by-product from biodiesel processing that can be used as a feedstock for the production of numerous commodity chemicals. Some of the existing methods use microbial processes for converting glycerol feedstock to usable chemicals such as butanol. Such processes result in a very slow conversion with a relatively low yield. Other methods involve catalytic processes which require very high temperatures and pressures. Thus, there is a need for a faster and more economical process to convert alcohols with shorter carbon chain lengths to alcohols with longer carbon chain lengths, for instance, for converting glycerol feedstock to butanol.